In the seventeenth century, when chemistry began to be studied with more care and attention in Europe, and particularly in Germany, and the component parts and production of saltpetre became better known,* many conceived the idea of improving the methods of obtaining it in Europe so much, that it might be possible to dispense with the Indian saltpetre, and flattered themselves with the hopes of thence deriving great advantages. Some proposed to fill tubes with putrifiable substances and earth susceptible of the nitrous acid; others preferred building vaults of these substances, and Glauber recommended the filling of pits with them. The proposal, however, which met with the greatest approbation was that of building walls of them. Through a confidence in this idea, towns and villages were compelled to erect and maintain a certain number of saltpetre walls, under the most gracious promise that the collectors of saltpetre should no longer be allowed to spoil private dwellings, or render them unhealthful.

But experience has shown that all the means and coercive measures hitherto employed have rendered the European saltpetre much dearer than

* The oldest method of boiling saltpetre is described in the work of Blasius Villafranca, page 8, already quoted, vol. iii. p. 340. That saltpetre manufactories were very numerous in the sixteenth century may be seen in Agricola and Conrade Gesner, where J. Kentman, in Lib. de omni rerum fossilium genere, p. 3, mentions nine in Thuringia alone.

that obtained by commerce from Bengal. This will be readily comprehended, when it is known that earth richly impregnated with saltpetre abounds in India, and that it may be extracted by lixiviation without any addition, and brought to crystallise in that warm climate without the aid of fire; that the price of labour there is exceedingly low; that this salt is brought from India instead of ballast by all the commercial nations of Europe, where the competition of the sellers prevents the price from ever being extravagantly high, while the preparation of it in Europe, in consequence of the still increasing price of labour, fuel, and ashes, is always becoming dearer. This regale will, at length, be every where scouted. In the duchy of Wurtemberg and the Prussian states, where it was most rigidly enforced, in consequence of an urgent representation from the states it was abolished in 1798; but in both countries an indemnification was given to government for the loss. The case also has been the same in Sweden. In the duchy of Brunswick it was soon suffered to drop; but in the electoral dominions it never was introduced.

PAPERS FOR CONVEYING INTELLIGENCE, REGISTER OFFICES.

THERE are many articles of information, the speedy and general publication of which is of importance not only to one individual, but very often to the inhabitants of a town, and even of a whole country. The oldest method employed for this purpose was that of causing the information to be announced by a public cryer. Thus Moses caused to be proclaimed by a cryer whatever he wished to make known to the whole body of the people. Among the Greeks and the, Romans these cryers were under the inspection of the police; and those, for example, who had lost any thing, and wished to advertise it in that manner, were obliged to seek for permission. Among the Greeks these cryers were called κηρυκες, and among the Romans præcones. One of them introduced in Petronius, accompanied by a police officer, is made to proclaim that a youth with curled hair, named Gito, about sixteen years of age, of a fair complexion and handsome countenance, had been lost from a bath, and that any one who should bring him back, or give information where he might be found, would receive a reward of a thou

Genesis, chap. xli. ver. 43. I Kings, chap. xxii. ver. 36. II Chronicles, chap. xxiv. ver. 9.

sand sesterces.* In Plautus† also we read of enquiry being made after a young woman by the cryer; and, according to Apuleius, Psyche was proclaimed in the like manner.

Another method of making any circumstance generally known, was to write it down and expose it in some public place. An instance of this is given by Propertius :

I, puer, et citus hæc aliqua propone columna,

Et dominum Esquiliis scribe habitare tuum.§

A proof that things found at Athens, and in all

* Puer in balneo paullo ante aberravit, annorum circa xvi, crispus, mollis, formosus, nomine Giton; si quis eum reddere, aut commonstrare voluerit, accipiet nummos inille. Petron. Satyr. cap. 97. A very full illustration of this passage may be found in Maternus von Cilano Abhandlung der Römischen Alterthümer. Altona 1775, 8vo. i. p. 476.

† Certum est præconum jubere jam quantum est conducier, Qui illam investigent, qui inveniant. Post ad prætorem ilico Ibo, orabo ut conquisitores det mihi in vicis omnibus.

Plautus, Mercat. iv. 1. 78.

Nil superest, quam tuo præconio præmium investigationis publicitus edicere. Fac ergo mandatum matures meum, et indicia quibus possit cognosci, manifeste designes; ne si quis occultationis illicita crimen suberit, ignorantiæ se possit excusatione defendere. Et simul dicens, libellum ei porrigit, ubi Psyches nomen continebatur et cætera. Quo facto protinus domum secessit. Nec Mercurius omisit obsequium; nam per omnium ora populorum passim discurrens, sic mandatæ prædicationis munus exequebatur. Si quis a fuga retrahere, vel occultam demonstrare poterit fugitivam regis filiam, Veneris ancillam, nomine Psychem, conveniat retro metas Martias Mercurium prædicatorem, accepturus indicinæ nomine ab ipsa Venere septem suavia, et unum blandientis adpulsu linguæ longe nrellitum. Apuleius Metamorph. lib. vi. p. 176.

§ Eleg. iii. 22, 23.

probability information of every kind, were announced by bills posted up, may be found in the account given by Lucian of the philosopher Demonax. Were the addition to Petronius, which Francis Nodot caused to be printed in 1693, genuine, one might conclude from it that, in the time of that Roman writer, all strangers who arrived in town were visited by servants of the police, and that their names were announced in a kind of gazettes. But this relation seems to prove that the pretended fragment is a forgery.

Ulpian says, that he who finds any thing is accustomed to make it publicly known by a bill posted up. In later times, when divine worship

Invenerat aureum anulum incedens per viam, tabellaque in foro proposita postulabat, ut qui perdidisset, dominus anuli, veniret, dictoque pondere illius et gemma et imagine, eum reciperet. Venit adolescentulus formosus se perdidisse dicens. Cum vero sani nihil diceret, abi, puer, inquit Demonax, et tuum ipsius anulum serva; hunc quidem non perdidisti. Edit. Bipont. v. p. 241.

† Ad sciendum quid esset, descendi, accepique prætoris lictorem, qui pro officio curabat exterorum nomina inscribi in publicis codicibus, duos vidisse advenas domum ingredi, quorum nomina nondum in acta retulerat, et idcirco de illorum patria et occupatione inquirere. cap. 15. p. 42.

Ulpian in L. Falsus creditor § Solent de furtis, tit. 2. 1. 47. or Digestor. lib. 47. tit. 2, 43, 8: Solent plerique etiam hoc facere, ut libellum proponant continentem invenisse et redditurum ei, qui desideraverit, hi vero ostendunt non furandi animo se fecisse. The ancient orator Chirus Fortunatianus says: Cujus servus fugerat, libello proposito, vel per præconem nuntians, dixit: daturum se denarios mille ei qui ad se servum perduxisset. See the notes to Propertius in the elegant edition printed at Padua in two quarto volumes, ii. p. 865.